hingvshiringTell them apart

Which to use

“hing” and “hiring” are a confusable English pair: similar on the page, but distinct in meaning, check the gloss before you choose.

#48,801
“hing” frequency rank
#4,861
“hiring” frequency rank
53662
confusion score

Side-by-Side Comparison

Feature hing hiring
Definition alternative form of hang. present participle and gerund of hire

Where the eye mixes hing and hiring

Muted = shared; highlighted = the visual trap. They share 4 letters in sequence.

4 ch
hing
6 ch
hiring

Why the eye confuses hing with hiring

A purely visual mix-up. hing (/hɪŋ/) and hiring (/haɪə.ɹɪŋ/) are said differently, so reading them aloud is the quickest way to catch the wrong one. On the page they stay close: they differ by 2 letter(s) in length. Our composite confusion score for this pair is 53662, derived from the frequency rank of both members and their visual similarity.

hing is recorded at frequency rank #48,801, classified as averb, pronounced /hɪŋ/. hiring is at rank #4,861, tagged as averb, pronounced /haɪə.ɹɪŋ/.

Glosses for this pair are partially populated in our dataset, but the full side-by-side definitions above should still guide you to the right choice.

With a confusion score of 53662, this pair ranks #147,226 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs - roughly mid-pack for confusability.

Orthographic DNA of hing vs hiring

Shared letters: ghin. Private to "hing": -. Private to "hiring": r.

"hing" · 4 letters · shape CVCC  ·  "hiring" · 6 letters · shape CVCVCC

Known mistypes of this pair

  • hinghhing · hign · hingg · hinng · hnig · ihng
  • hiringhhiring · hiirng · hirign · hiringg · hirinng · hirnig · hirring · hriing

Frequently Asked Questions

Do "hing" and "hiring" mean the same thing in a sentence?
No. They are said differently (/hɪŋ/ versus /haɪə.ɹɪŋ/) and carry different meanings; reading the sentence aloud is usually enough to catch the wrong one.
In ordinary English text, does "hing" or "hiring" show up more?
"hiring" is the more common of the two: it sits at frequency rank #4,861 in our English list, against #48,801 for "hing". That is a wide gap, so in ordinary text the rarer spelling is the one worth double-checking.

After this comparison

Pronunciation already separates them, if the page still looks alike, the dictionary links below settle it.

  • Full dictionary entry for "hing" with definition, IPA, and generated misspellings. Word entry
  • Full dictionary entry for "hiring" - compare definitions side by side with the headword page. Word entry
  • This pair ranks #147,226 of 530,003 scored English confusable pairs in this corpus vintage. Corpus statistics
  • "hing" and "hiring" also get mixed up with nearby pairs, the highest-scored neighbour is "HIIT vs hing". Nearby pair
  • Recorded mistypes exist for at least one side of this pair, useful when a spell-checker or OCR lands on the wrong form. See mistypes

Confusion rank #147,226 of 530,003 scored English pairs, corpus vintage 2026-09-03, not spelling advice.

Source: Wiktionary (via kaikki.org) Structured Wiktionary extract

Source: FrequencyWords open word-frequency list